Merchants such as brick and mortar retailers or online stores often release new products for purchase by the public. Such merchants usually try to store sufficient quantities of new products in inventory so as to be able to supply the consumer demand for such products. However, given that there is typically little or no data that indicates what the demand will be for new products that have yet to be released for purchase by the public, the quantity of product that needs to be stocked in inventory to meet the demand upon initial release can be somewhat speculative. Unfortunately, to ensure adequate inventory to meet consumer demand, merchants often overstock a product that is to be released in the future. This translates into unwanted excess inventory costs and other costs.